Emergence Capital Partners, a US-based venture capital firm, has led a $5.4m investment in a Latin American technology incubator created by the founders of the regional office supply company Officenet, which was sold to US chain Staples in 2004.
the incubator, Quasar, will be based in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and plans to create 10 global technology companies over a four-year period by identifying high growth business models and pairing them with entrepreneurs that have been selected by the programme. The founders, Andy Freire, Santiago Bilinkis and Pablo Simon Casarino, call it a “company builder”, as opposed to a traditional incubator.
Emergence, which focuses on early stage venture capital, has previously taken exposure to Latin America through an investment in Restorando, a Brazil-based online restaurant reservation service, which raised $3m in a series A funding round in 2012.
Richmond Ventures’ Peter Kellner, Verónica Serra from Pacific Investimentos and a local Argentinian venture firm, CAP Ventures, were all listed as co-investors in Quasar.